So.....here we are, almost 3 weeks AFTER the election and still no press conference WITH QUESTIONS.

1) Is he afraid of questions?2) Does he NOT want to talk about having less votes than Clinton? Embarrassed?3) Is he like the dog who finally caught up to the car.....and now doesn't know what to do?

Where are you Dimwit Donny? Looking forward to his first press conference with questions. Should be entertaining......

And when is he going to show his tax returns?.......

He won't do many press conferences. He has no depth of understanding of the issues, and the press will treat him differently WRT to policy if and when he is president. He has no stamina, and can't control his temper, and he will lash out at the press in real time. He will look bad in front of the world. And the offending members of the press will get banned from the press corp, until it's only Fox News and Brietbart. And then we just have full on Soviet style disinformation. That's what they want.

And imagine Trump giving a state of the Union address, or speaking at the UN, or responding to the first mass shooting on his watch. It will be horrifying and unsettling. Zero confidence will be inspired.

We will never see his tax returns, because they would show much less wealth than he claims, and likely involvement with Russian interests. The media and public would be all over it. Hopefully some good citizen comes forward with an oppo drop, on his taxes or something else that would place him on a very negative and defensive posture, that truly compromises his ability to carry out the US Constitutional duties of president.

Extract: "In many ways, undertaking an audit of the election results is tantamount to performing a test for a rare but potentially fatal disease....An audit very probably won’t detect a conspiracy, but it will reveal information about our voting systems. FiveThirtyEight and most other American news organizations are founded on the premise that more information is better, even if it risks being misinterpreted. I’ve never questioned that premise more than I have over the course of this election. But over the next four years, we’re all going to have to get used to an environment in which nuggets of insight come buried in mounds of misinformation. An audit is as good a place as any to start."

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“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” ― Leon C. Megginson

I can't wait for next few months. I clearly wish the outcome would have been different.....but now we have to deal with the cards we have.

I want to see who the first reporter is that will publicly call him out to his face in a press conference or interview for lying. It may take a few months after he starts.....but that day will come.

He has such a weak pool of talent to pull from for his cabinet and staff......plus he is such a weak player.....this could really get ugly.

And now.....on his secretary of state nominee.....he is screwed. If he chooses Mitt.....he will have a VERY divided team. If he chooses Rudy......he will have someone with a horrible temperament like his own. Petreus brings in some very bad baggage of his own. Senator Corker may come to his rescue......we'll see.

Here's a good video of Jim Grant.....he is an "interest rate guru" (who voted for Trump by the way). But I watch his views on INTEREST RATES closely.

I expect the equity markets to move UP over the coming years as interest rates rise (pushing money OUT of bond markets...and into the waiting arms of the stock market). Like any LONG TERM RISE...there will be bouts of INTERMEDIATE DOWNTURNS....but the long term trajectory is up. Markets are SUPPLY AND DEMAND MECHANISMS.

The linked article is entitled: "Priebus confirms that climate denial will be the official policy of Trump’s administration". Those hoping the The Donald would show some reasonable behavior about climate change, once he is president, are going to be in for a rude awakening:

One thing of interest for me to watch....is going to be who Trump appoints as Sec of State. I think it will either be Petreus or Guilianni or Corker (unless Corker doesn't want the job).

I don't think he will appoint Mitt....but he WILL try to get Mitt to "apologize" in order to be considered. I actually think that Trump would do that. Trump is TERRIBLY sensitive and thin skinned...and I doubt he has forgotten all the "wonderful" things that Mitt said about him. He probably wants Mitt to beg for the job....and then cut him off at the knees.

Plus...Mitt's got an oversized ego....he will figure he can apologize and then be a shoe in for the job.

Sarah Palin being considered for Secretary of the VA. That is quite the topper. Someone who can't even speak English.....put together two coherent sentences.......with a cabinet position.

Anybody want to buy some SWAMPLAND? At first they were going to drain it.....NOW....they are expanding it instead.....and making it into an amusement park.

Comedians are going to be working overtime... Maybe Jon Stewart will come back.

Speaking of overtime.... The last quarters GDP was revised UP to 3.2% in the US from 2.9%. Unlike Obama who was handed the Ferrari after it bashed into telephone pole.....I guess Dimwit Donnie will be handed an economy that is humming right along with a brand new Ferrari. Unemployment at 4.9%....housing looking strong.

The linked article is entitled: "With one phone call, Donald Trump might have upturned America’s relationship with both Pakistan and India." This provides just one example that Trump is a loose cannon:

Extract: "Going against State Department protocol, the president-elect continues to speak to foreign leaders on a personal line and without preparation. Trump is also not releasing read-outs of these calls, so what we know of them tends to come from foreign sources."

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“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” ― Leon C. Megginson

Extract: "Stein formally requested Wednesday a hand recount of the state’s presidential election, a labor-intensive undertaking that is expected to begin Friday morning and could result in marathon counting sessions until the Dec. 13 deadline.

Republican President-elect Donald Trump won by 10,704 votes over Democrat Hillary Clinton, getting 47.5 percent of the vote to the former secretary of state’s 47.27 percent. Stein received 51,463 votes or about 1.1 percent.

The Green Party nominee’s attorneys left a $973,250 check at the state Bureau of Elections to cover Stein’s legally required fees for seeking a recount of 6,300 precincts."

Friends, I have an important message for you. We need your help to stand up to the powerful forces trying to block our recount campaign for citizen democracy. We received word yesterday that the final estimate for the filing fee for the recount in Wisconsin is $3.5 million – an outrageous cost increase from the initial estimate of $1.1 million that was given to us by WI state elections officials based on the last statewide recount. But thanks to over 130,000 small donors like you, we have enough money in hand to pay this fee and move forward with the recount!

But because of this exorbitant fee increase – bringing the total money required for recounts in all three states to $9.5 million – we need your help. We’re not there yet, and we need every last penny to reach the $9.5 million benchmark."

« Last Edit: December 01, 2016, 01:42:32 AM by AbruptSLR »

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“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” ― Leon C. Megginson

As Clinton's lead in the popular vote increases, the issue of who should be President is getting harder to ignore. Although Trump won an Electoral victory, it was be no means a landslide as he claimed.

I wonder if anyone's done a study on wildfires, floods, hurricanes, drought, possibly including pipeline ruptures and other anthropogenic disasters etc. which would compare the number of these according to the political parties in power? I have no clue what the result would be but it might be an interesting study.

If I'm Donald Trump......and I DIDN'T think there were likely to be any significant errors....the one thing I DON'T DO is to try to stop a recount. Why? Because a recount...if there weren't any errors...gives me MORE STATURE. It "proves" that I won. So this band of people who thought that Trump actually "stole" the election....were wrong. And after a recount they would likely be quieted some and life could go on.

But here he is.....trying to STOP the recount. THAT.....raises a red flag to me. It doesn't mean that something "nefarious" is going on....but it raises a red flag.

I still don't think a recount in all 3 states will come out in Clinton's favor. Wisconsin is the closest....so it wouldn't surprise me if it "flipped". But for all 3 to flip would be like the odds of winning the jackpot.

Trump is off to a horrible start. A gracious winner? NO. Continuing to lie? YES.

The fact that he is surrounding himself with "the swamp" doesn't bode well either. Especially since they are "inadequate and ill equipped swamp" in many cases.

As some of you know...I'm a big "Duck fan". And when Oregon announced that Marc Helfreich would "take over the reigns" as head coach 4 years ago.....I was disappointed. I didn't think he had "the right stuff" to be able to recruit good players AND good coaches. And sure enough.....year by year....the football program deteriorated as he wasn't able to recruit good people (either coaches OR players). Helfreich was fired (impeached ) this week...and Oregon now looks for the coach they should have had in the first place.

THAT....is the same issue that Trump is going to suffer from. He is ill equipped to take over from the beginning....AND....he isn't able to recruit good folks for his cabinet. He has...and will continue to hire.......mostly ill equipped folks. I hope for our sake...he hires Bob Corker for Sec of State. I don't agree with a lot of what Corker stands for...and he WILL be a yes man for Trump. But at least he has some intelligence....AND....he also has limitations to his "yes man" status (he will only be pushed SO FAR).

The next year will be fascinating. And Trump is likely headed for trouble.

Remember.....we still have 2 more months of data to come before Comrade Trump takes office that could push that 4.6% rate LOWER STILL.

Trump will take credit for the rate decrease come January....although it is clearly Obama's since Trump won't take office till January 20th.

Expect Obama to tout these continued good numbers LOUD AND CLEAR over the next couple of months. And this will paint Trump into a corner of finding it harder and harder to IMPROVE ON THOSE NUMBERS.

And if that improvement DOESN'T HAPPEN.....that is when Trump will run into more issues.

Keep in mind that MOMENTUM is on the UPSIDE now in the US job market.....and that momentum will likely carry into at least the MIDDLE of 2017. It will also make it much harder to go on some wild stimulus program.....because it would only stoke inflation.

More on the jobs front from the linked article below:====================================According to several key measures, President Obama is handing over an unusually strong economy to a successor from the opposing party. There have been 81 consecutive months of private-sector job growth, the longest streak on record.

The tightening labor market, after a frustrating delay, has started to bump wages above the rate of inflation. Housing prices are up, and consumers are expressing the highest levels of confidence in nearly a decade. The American economy grew by a healthy 3.2 percent annual rate during the third quarter of this year.=====================================http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/business/economy/jobs-report.html?_r=0

The linked article is entitled: "Trump Backers Go to Court to Block Vote Recounts in 3 States". The article indicates that lawyers for Jill Stein are fighting back against the Trump Backers' legal moves:

Extract: "A lawyer for Ms. Stein, Mark Brewer, said Mr. Trump’s campaign was making a “desperate attempt” to avoid a recount. “I would remind everybody that the original source of the allegation that this election was rigged was Mr. Trump,” Mr. Brewer told the board.The Michigan board split, 2-2, along party lines, meaning the recount objection failed.…The recounts bids are widely viewed as having little chance of making a difference. But Ms Stein, in a statement, said the challenges to them were an effort to put “party politics above country.”

“In an election already tainted by suspicion, previously expressed by Donald Trump himself,” she said, “verifying the vote is a common-sense procedure that would put all concerns around voter disenfranchisement to rest. Trump’s desperate attempts to silence voter demands for recounts raise a simple question: why is Donald Trump afraid of these recounts?”

Ms. Stein has raised millions of dollars for an effort to force recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, states that have recently voted Democratic and where Mr. Trump won by relatively thin margins.

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“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” ― Leon C. Megginson

Extract: "Might the current CEO of Irving-based Exxon Mobil become the next U.S. secretary of state? Or maybe the prior Exxon CEO, retired since 2005, will get the federal job next year?

Rumors connecting president-elect Donald Trump with both current Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson and former CEO Lee Raymond have been getting multiple media attention. But some rumors are pointing in totally different directions as recently as today."

See also the linked article entitled: "Exxon CEO Tillerson is on short list for secretary of state spot in Trump’s Cabinet".

The linked article is entitled: "Is Trump considering current or former CEOs of Texas-based Exxon Mobil for secretary of state?" Talk about getting into bed with the devil.

I believe that is a "misdirection" by Trump. You show people a couple of bad candidates like Romney and Guilianni that people aren't thrilled about. So.....you show them a couple more THAT ARE WAY WORSE. Makes Mitt and Rudy look a lot better......and a lot more palletable:)

This is priceless. This is a quote from a Trump surrogate in an interview. And it IS what they did the whole campaign. The trouble was.....THE PRESS did a HORRIBLE JOB of calling out lies...as lies. And they did a HORRIBLE JOB of reporting on what was A FACT...and what was a LIE. And they CONTINUE to do a horrible job.

Here is her quote:

“One thing that’s been interesting this entire campaign season to watch is that people that say facts are facts. They’re not really facts,” Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes said on “The Diane Rehm Show” on NPR. “It’s kind of like looking at ratings or looking at a glass of half-full water. Everybody has a way of interpreting them to be the truth or not true. There’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore as facts.”

The linked article is entitled: ”Yes, you can blame millennials for Hillary Clinton’s loss". Apparently, Clinton lost about 5% of the millennial vote apparently to third-party candidates in the final days before the election:

Extract: "Hillary Clinton's campaign has lots of excuses for losing. There's the electoral college, James Comey, the media's alleged over-exuberance in digging into Clinton's email server, etc. But Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said Thursday that one particular group is especially to blame: millennials.…Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook also acknowledged that her operation had made a number of mistakes and miscalculations, while being buffeted by what he repeatedly described as a “headwind” of being an establishment candidate in a season where voters were anxious for change.

He noted, for example, that younger voters, perhaps assuming that Clinton was going to win, migrated to third-party candidates in the final days of the race."

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“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” ― Leon C. Megginson

I have certainly NOT been optimistic about a Trump presidency all along. Now...after more than 3 weeks have passed by since the election.....and after viewing what has happened since, and how Trump has handled himself...I am materially LESS CONFIDENT IN HIM.

This truly has the makings of a political disaster. You can already see the cracks beginning to form...even on the "right" side of aisle.

Some people don't know how to be a good loser...and that is not a good quality. What may be even worse...is someone who doesn't know how to be a good winner. And Trump clearly falls into that camp.

He clearly doesn't know how to handle himself as a leader of a country. And he is likely to continue to "step in it" on issue after issue in the future. And....come 6 months from now, if the economy begins to slip....the "boo birds" will start to come out in droves. And he will NOT handle that well.

He is just in WAY OVER HIS HEAD AND HIS ABILITIES....and he doesn't know it.

The linked article is entitled: "Jill Stein sues in federal court to hasten Michigan presidential recount". It is a good thing that Stein raised millions to fight the forces of darkness, because she is going to need every penny she raised:

Extract: "Green Party candidate Jill Stein has filed suit in federal court in an effort to get the presidential recount she requested underway sooner.

In a lawsuit filed late Friday in Detroit's U.S. District Court, Stein's attorney, Mark Brewer, asked for a court order to start the presidential recount immediately instead of next week. The Board of State Canvassers and Michigan Elections Director Chris Thomas are named in the suit.

It's the latest in a series of legal challenges facing the presidential recount, which is moving forward for now after the Board of State Canvassers deadlocked Friday in a 2-2 vote on whether to accept an objection filed by President-elect Donald Trump's legal team.

Currently, a hand recount of the millions of ballots cast in Michigan is slated to begin either late Tuesday or early Wednesday, two business days after the Board of State Canvassers' vote, Thomas said Friday.

Citing the federal "safe harbor" deadline of Dec. 13 -- six days before the Electoral College meets -- Stein's filing claimed further delay in the recount is "effectively denying the right to vote.""

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“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” ― Leon C. Megginson

The linked article is entitled: "Jill Stein Campaign Drops Her Recount Effort In Pennsylvania". This action should help focus Stein's efforts to the two most promising states, and will help to conserve her funds:

Extract: "Jill Stein has ended her statewide ballot recount effort in Pennsylvania.…In Pennsylvania, though, Stein's withdrawal brings an abrupt conclusion to a statewide effort that began there less than one week ago. "Recounts will still proceed in a handful of Pennsylvania precincts, but it is far from the statewide recount that Ms. Stein was hoping for," The Wall Street Journal reports.

At this time, there is no indication that Stein's campaign plans to drop its efforts in Wisconsin — where The Associated Press reports a recount is already underway — or in Michigan."

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“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” ― Leon C. Megginson

I just realised how this could happen. The peoples of the southern states have been reading the false horoscopes all their lives. When you think of it, the stars of course cannot affect a 6 pounder newborn. Thus the influence of stars has to happen earlier in the insemination. Every horoscope is thus 10 months backwards from their traditional dates. No wonder there's no second coming in sight, they can't even guess the correct alignement of the stars for the rebirth of our savior king Arthur. (To offer some "rationalisation" for the voting behavior of the fascists in US and Europe.) I think I can mostly put this result un the backburner now, occasional relapses of dissing/trashing etc. the republicans (who call themselves teabaggers) are though likely, but the horoscope mixup started by medieval astrologers is good enough an explanation for this irrational behavior of electoral collegiate.

"Donald Trump Will Be President In Just Over A Month And The Constitution Is Already Under Attack."

Extract: With a little over a month until Donald Trump takes office, the president-elect and his allies have already begun to attack the guarantees of the First Amendment, signaling how imperiled the fundamental freedoms of the Constitution could be under a Trump presidency.

All aboard the "Trump Train". When will the train "jump the tracks" and into the ravine? It is only a matter of "when".....not a matter of "if". Again....when you don't hire good folks....bad things happen. Especially when the worst of those folks is at the top.